A Woman's Portrait
by Out of the Orange
Summary: One idle winter's day, Tenchi's sketchbook sparks an interesting conversation between himself and Ryoko. Takes place after the events of Tenchi Forever, aka TMiL2.


It was a cold, crisp day, and most of the Masaki family was either outside playing in the snow (Sasami, Washu, and Ryo-Oh-Ki) or off to work (Mihoshi, Kiyone, Nobuyuki, and - for a wonder - Ayeka). Ryoko came down the stairs, having gotten up at a ludicrously late hour, as always. "Everyone's a' work, huh…?" she slurred to herself, stretching her lean, muscled arms over her head. 

"Morning, Ryoko."

"Whoa!" Ryoko jumped. Tenchi was smiling at her from the couch, where he was sitting with his sketchbook in his lap. "Oh my God," groaned Ryoko. "Tenchi, you scared the shit outta me!"

He laughed. "Sorry, sorry. Thought you'd know I was here."

"Well, how would I know that?" Ryoko huffed. "It's Friday. Everyone's at work or somethin', aren't they? Thought _you'd_ be at school." With that, she vanished into thin air. Tenchi thought perhaps she might have gone to the kitchen to dig up some breakfast, but in the next instant she was standing behind the back of the couch, peering over his shoulder. "What, you decided to play hooky so you could spend some quality time with little ole Ryoko? Hmm?" she murmured into his ear.

Tenchi blushed as she began to nuzzle his face. "Eh heh. Well. Not exactly. I'm on Christmas break right now, is all."

"Oh. Poo." Ryoko brightened up again quickly. "Well, that's fine. That still means you can spend some quality time with me, eh? Eh?" She hopped over the back of the couch and plunked herself on the cushions beside Tenchi. "I mean, the family's outside—and better yet, that ole hag Ayeka is off at work right now."

Tenchi snorted, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, when the cat's away, the mice will play, huh?"

"Oh my, Tenchi." Ryoko beamed. "I can't believe we were both just thinking the _exact same thing!_ Well, let's get started then, shall we?" With that, she seized the boy's shirt and began to yank it upwards.

"Argh, _no!_ Th-that's not what I meant!" Tenchi yelped, flailing about in desperation. "Oh God, someone help me! RAPE!" A giggling Ryoko pushed him over and straddled his waist, while Tenchi flung the sketchbook up in front of his face in a last-ditch effort to protect his purity.

"Oh, Tenchi, Tenchi! Don't act so coy—" Ryoko snickered. Abruptly, however, she stopped.

At her long silence, Tenchi dared to open one eye and peek up at her. "Uh?" To his surprise, there was an uncharacteristically sober look on her face. "What is it?"

Ryoko got off Tenchi's waist and sat neatly down beside him. "That drawing," she said simply while pretending to examine the hands folded in her lap.

"Oh. This?" Tenchi turned the sketchbook over so that said drawing was staring him in the face.

It was barely more than a crude sketch, depicting a soft-eyed woman with masses of dark hair hanging over her shoulders. Crude sketch or no, it was already obvious that the woman was quite beautiful. A feeling both strange and familiar stirred within Tenchi's heart as he examined it again.

"There's something about it," he found himself saying aloud. "I don't recall ever meeting a woman like this, but I still feel like she's—"

"Haruna."

Tenchi looked up quickly. "Come again?"

"That woman's name is Haruna," Ryoko said, still in that strange, quiet voice. Tenchi looked down at the drawing again.

"Yeah," he said softly. "You must be right." He glanced at Ryoko. "This—this has something to do with that time I disappeared, doesn't it."

Ryoko nodded. "You don't remember much about that, huh?"

Tenchi looked down at the sketchbook again, tracing the lines of the woman's face with one finger. "Not really. But, somehow—I guess—"

"She was gorgeous," Ryoko said abruptly. "We came to get you from that apartment to save you, and she told us to get out. You were hers, she said. She was pretty pissed."

Tenchi stared down at the drawing. "Yeah," he said quietly.

She continued, more hesitantly now. "There was this—painting, in one of the rooms. I could see it from where we'd come in. It was of Haruna, sitting like—like that." Ryoko waved her hand toward the sketchbook in Tenchi's lap.

"I see…"

After a moment, Ryoko closed her eyes and added, "It was a really nice painting, Tenchi."

For a long time, neither of them said anything.

Then Tenchi abruptly sat up, looking straight at Ryoko. "Actually, I—"

"Hmm?" She blinked. There was an interesting look in Tenchi's brown eyes; a mixture of confusion and wonder and something else entirely.

"I just remembered something else," he said slowly. He looked off into the distance, concentrating. "I…While I was in that apartment." His voice lowered, became still more deliberate. "This is gonna sound crazy, but I remembered _you._"

Ryoko's back straightened immediately. "_What?_"

"Yeah." Tenchi looked up and met her eyes again. This time, his look was filled with certainty and the concentration of remembering. "I remember now. At least two times…I could remember you, what you looked like. Not entirely, but—I think It was your hair, mostly."

"My—my hair?" Ryoko was flustered and embarrassed.

Tenchi smiled. "Yeah. I remembered the shape and color of your hair. I think I asked her to get these curtains once… Well, anyway, a couple of times I'd make these drawings of you."

Ryoko thought about those curtains. The first time they'd gone, the curtains were pink. They had been light blue the second time around. Funny that she was only thinking of this now. Then again, she hadn't thought that there might be anything significant behind it back then. "I didn't know," she murmured.

Tenchi smiled, dropping his eyes down to the rough sketch in his lap again. "I think she got rid of them."

At that, Ryoko suddenly began to laugh. "Did she now? I can imagine. She did hate my guts, that Haruna." And she had. Somehow, Ryoko had felt that that woman's hatred had always been directed most strongly towards _her_—even more than it had been towards Ayeka. Ryoko hadn't understood it then; quite frankly she hadn't given a shit. She'd just assumed somewhere in the back of her mind that the woman hated her more because Ryoko had been the more abrasive of the two girls who had come crashing in on her world.

But maybe it had been something else entirely.

Maybe it had been because Haruna had seen that Tenchi—

Because Tenchi—

Whatever it was, Ryoko allowed herself a little smile. '_First Ayeka_. _And now Haruna, too?'_ It was a smile of triumph and pleasure, yes; but there was also guilt and gratitude (and maybe just a little sadness).

Maybe she was just being presumptuous; sure. But still—here was Tenchi now, and he was smiling at her with something soft in his eyes that maybe, just maybe, wasn't only her imagination.

Tenchi reached out and gave Ryoko's hair a gentle tug. "Well," he said. "I'll make another sometime."

Ryoko blinked in confusion for a moment. "Another what…?" And then she glanced down at the pencil he was twirling in his hand, and she knew. "Ohh!"

They smiled.

* * *

**_AN:_** I always wanted to write something spun off the third Tenchi movie, so... Yeah. If you haven't seen said movie, you probably had no clue what I was on about most of the time - sorry! Also, I haven't done any proofreading or editting yet. I'll take care of that later...

Leave a review telling me what you thought about this, hmkay? I'll love you forever if you do.


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